So Hard On The Knees
by Laura6
Summary: SLASH. Ron has a little problem with Slut!Harry; Seamus matchmakes, Dean reasons, and Harry makes it with numerous people (implied, in this chapter, anyway). Confusion ensues. Falling in love is so hard on the knees.


Title

Herein lies slash. If that makes you uncomfortable, please hit the back button post haste.

Title: So Hard On The Knees  
Author: Laura  
Rating: PG-13  
Pairing: numerous  
Archives: Anything, just ask.  
Warnings: Nothing, really.  
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling created the Harry Potter universe and the characters mentioned here.  
Feedback: Anything and everything.  
Summary: SLASH. Ron has a little problem with Slut!Harry; Seamus matchmakes, Dean reasons, and Harry makes it with numerous people (just implied, in this chapter, anyway). Confusion ensues. Falling in love is so hard on the knees.

'So we're playing Ravenclaw tomorrow,' Harry said, as he moved a pawn forward straight into Ron's trap. 'Seamus will be playing this time, since Collins is in the hospital wing. Anyway. What do you think of their team? I hear the Chasers are exceptional.'

Ron took the pawn, and wondered why he was the only one Harry talked Quidditch to, and how he managed to look so innocent whether he was talking strategy or flirting. Sometimes Ron wondered whether it was really a good thing that Harry had never even attempted to flirt with him, because . . . what was so important about being valued as a friend, when Harry was looking up at him, and his hair was falling into his verdant eyes?

'Ron?'

'Yeah?'

'So what do you think of their team?'

And it wasn't fair that he was so perfect, either. That he could ask perfectly innocent questions and make Ron's ears turn red, and that when he looked up and smiled just a little (Ron could never figure out whether or not this was calculated) it sent people's heads spinning.

'I think our team is better, but yes, I think their Chasers are pretty good. And, um, their defence is weak.'

Harry began to describe an elaborate play the team had come up with a few days ago to this effect, but was interrupted by the arrival of Seamus, who jumped onto the bed beside Harry, rested his chin on Harry's shoulder and surveyed the chessboard.

'You're losing, Harry,' he commented, and moved Harry's bishop for him.

'Aren't I always?' said Harry, and grinned at Ron.

Maybe he found that kind of thing intoxicating, because he had such a dramatic effect on most people, and of course he knew it, but Ron could never make up his mind whether he wanted Harry to think long enough to take him out of the best-friend-and-don't-touch box, or . . . or not.

'Check,' said Seamus, and smirked at Harry. 'I am _so _much better at chess than you are.'

'You are not,' protested Harry, and nudged him with his shoulder.

'Am too,' Seamus shot back, and didn't notice when Ron moved his king out of check.

'Are _not_,' said Harry, and knocked Seamus over, both of them rolling off the bed and landing with a thump. There was a pause, and then Ron heard Seamus laugh breathlessly, and turned away, closing his eyes.

Of course Gryffindor won, and there was a party later on in the common room that lasted until after midnight, because Gryffindor would now be playing Slytherin in the Quidditch Final, and there seemed to be a lot of people drinking what didn't quite look as innocuous as Butterbeer. Seamus had a few himself. The first time he tilted his head back and drank it in one gulp, and then staggered and coughed, and Dean laughed at him. There was no-one daring enough to let off fireworks in the common-room since the Weasley twins, but there were one or two attempts at entertainment, some music, and certainly a lot of sweets; Seamus more than suspected that Harry and Ron themselves had something to do with that. Since the noise level seemed to be quite under control (except for the occasional small explosion), no-one came to tell them to go up to their dormitories, and the party continued late into the night. Seamus spent most of it dancing, drinking, and talking animatedly to Dean and Neville about something he couldn't remember the next morning.

To his amusement, Harry was actually dancing, and Seamus suspected that the drinks had something to do with that. He pointed it out to Dean, who laughed and shook his head.

'Seamus, some people would kill to be you.'

'Why?' asked Seamus, perching on the arm of Dean's sofa.

'Because you get all the action around Harry.'

'Yeah. Me, and the rest of the school,' said Seamus, grinning. 'What about it? Name me someone who would kill to be me, anyway.'

'Ron,' said Dean, deadpan.

'_Ron_?' Seamus was genuinely startled, and glanced over to where Ron was standing with his arms crossed, watching Harry dance with a queer expression on his face. 'What has Ron got to do with things?'

'_I_ think he'd kill to be you,' Dean said. 'Haven't you ever noticed how Harry acts around him?'

'Yeah, they're just best friends. Ron is Harry's _best friend_, Dean.'

'Well, maybe that's the problem,' Dean said, and got up. 'Want another drink?'

At some point people started crawling up to bed in small groups, until the last few were left to clear up. Seamus started up the stairs a long while later, and tripped over Harry Potter, who was lying on one step with his head pillowed on another.

'Harry?' he asked, getting to his feet and shaking the limp figure on the steps gently. 'Harry, wake up.'

'Seamus?' said Harry, blinking, and clutched at Seamus's hand to pull himself up. 

'What're you doing down here?' 

'I don't quite know,' said Harry, sounding rather surprised, and rather drunk. 'Where are we anyway?' He took a step forward, tripped over one of the steps, and Seamus had to help him up again. 

'We're going back to the dormitory,' Seamus informed him, but Harry surprised him with a quick openmouthed kiss. 

Seamus arched an eyebrow. 'Feeling a little licentious tonight?' 

Harry smirked and kissed him again. 'You know I always am.' 

And suddenly, irrationally, Seamus thought of what Dean had told him earlier. 'Where's Ron?' he said, and immediately regretted it. 

'Ron? . . . I don't know,' said Harry, looking confused, and inclined his head, breath misting out over Seamus's neck. 'Why?' 

'Never mind,' Seamus said, but he was still thinking about Ron, and wondered whether Harry really only thought of him as a best friend. Maybe it was better for them to be just friends, because from what Seamus had seen of them, they were very close (he had thought they were soulmates, during that first year at Hogwarts, and had laughed about it with Dean) and it would be _different_, if Harry treated Ron the way he treated Seamus. Not that that was a bad thing, his constant interaction with Harry, but . . . it would just be _different_. 

'What is it?' Harry asked, his voice whisper-soft, fingers curling under Seamus's collar, but he didn't seem to expect an answer. 

They reached the dormitory eventually, and it was all right because everyone else was asleep, including Ron, which they had discovered when Seamus almost pushed Harry onto Ron's bed by mistake. But the thought of him was running through Seamus's mind, even as he grinned, watching Harry take off his glasses, fold them and set them down, and then blink up at him, his eyes wide and unfocused. Damn that Ron Weasley. Surely he wasn't making Seamus feel _guilty_, because that couldn't happen, not with Seamus. And besides. He didn't even know whether Dean was right. 

He awoke the next morning stretched out on the end of Harry's bed, and lay there for a while, listening to Harry's quiet breathing. After a while he turned his head to look at Harry, who was sleeping on his side with one hand tucked under his cheek. His eyes were closed and strangely vulnerable without his glasses, and, like Dean, he had very long lashes. 

It was funny how every time he looked at Harry now, he thought of Ron, and the funny, wistful, resentful look on his face as he watched Harry dance. 

At breakfast Harry confessed to having a slight headache, and Ron teased him about it, stealing his piece of toast out from under his nose. Seamus shoved the whole Ron business to the back of his mind and concentrated on eating his breakfast. Really. He should _stop_ thinking about things like that, things that veered dangerously towards melodrama. After all, he was here to have fun. 

Later Harry bumped into Draco Malfoy in the corridor, and possessions spilled from both bookbags. 

'Watch where you're _going_, you stupid git,' Malfoy spat. He seemed too annoyed to think of a stinging remark today, Seamus thought, but he seemed to be expecting an answer from Harry. The other boy just gave him a Look, but Seamus thought this one looked . . . strange, not furious, but sort of intense, and maybe a little predatory. Hmmm. Harry and Malfoy might actually be quite an amusing couple. 

He mentioned this to Dean, who sighed and said, 'Seamus, you're delusional.' 

'Why? They would so be amusing.'

'But. Seamus. Look, you can't match up _everyone_ in seventh year.'

'Just watch me,' said Seamus, and skipped off down the hallway.

He thought he heard Dean say, 'Who are you going to match yourself up with, then?' and turned around, but Dean didn't seem to expect an answer.


End file.
